Episode 017 March 2015

We chat with matte painter Jesse Silver about his work on Tron, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Labyrinth, moving from real paint to digital for Super Mario Bros., and one high-pressure effects house that had phones in the toilet stalls.

About The Optical

Host Mark Boszko takes you on a journey back through the annals of Cinefex magazine, talking about the movies and topics they covered 30+ years ago. We talk to people involved in the films, people who make movies, and people who love movies, and have a fun time doing it.

Just what is a full negative, anyway? Jesse Silver followed up with this answer:

In the dim dark days of the Pre-Digital universe when we made effects by layering various elements together using an optical printer or a matte camera we would order the elements to be shot as "full" negatives. Essentially the shots were overexposed by 1/3 of a stop. This made for a heavier negative - lighter positive = heavier negative. The purpose of this was two fold. The full negative provided more information and tonal range in the shadows, and the beefier negative contained more grains which essentially reduced the apparent graininess of the image. Since graininess increases with each generation of duping, a smoother looking negative reduced this flaw.